


but if you try sometimes

by knightinbrightfeathers



Series: are you ready for the country (club au) [2]
Category: Les Misérables - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, F/M, country club au
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-11
Updated: 2016-03-11
Packaged: 2018-05-26 01:59:26
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,296
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6219184
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/knightinbrightfeathers/pseuds/knightinbrightfeathers
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Éponine knows what she likes.</p>
            </blockquote>





	but if you try sometimes

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you to rhien for her priceless beta work.  
> (Clarification: Chronologically, this happens before "will you come see me" but I felt like this was less cool as a beggining for the series so? The rest of the fics in this series are in the proper chronological order.)

Éponine knows what she likes. It's a good quality to have. It saves her a lot of time ordering at restaurants, which she can afford now. (It's always special, that feeling she gets when she takes out her wallet and knows she has enough.) She likes black coffee, the grey scarf R gave her for her birthday, when Azelma does her hair. She likes windy days, and her hair the way it is now, although that might change. She likes her friends. She likes reliability. Éponine likes gentle eyes and shy grins, big square hands and so many freckles that they're almost a tan. She likes people who talk to her like she's an equal. She likes Kafka sticking out of back pockets and people who stop Gav from sneaking frogs into the locker room (but look the other way when Enjolras's bike gets smeared with pudding after a particularly thoughtless comment to Grantaire) and the way his voice sounds when he's fixing something but is still listening to you ...

Okay, so she likes Feuilly. It's a good thing - her last actual relationship was with 'Parnasse, who is a dirty rotten user.

"You're staring at his butt again," Cosette says.

Éponine puts down her sandwich, which has been suspended between her mouth and her plate for who knows how long. "It's a really nice butt." Denial is for children, and Combeferre and Courfeyrac. 

"It is," Cosette agrees, which is really nice of her, because Cosette's current sexuality is Marius's butt. "Is today the day?"

It's been two weeks since Éponine decided that she could afford to let her crush run free, and a month since it actually started. (Without asking her. Rude.) It's probably time.

"This week," she says decisively.

"Do you need someone to be unhelpfully encouraging?" Cosette offers. "Pep talk? Ice cream?" It's hard not to like Cosette. Éponine doesn't try anymore.

"Only if he turns me down."

 

 

Éponine prepares herself. She wants to be adult about this. No need for a show or public humiliation. There's enough of that from all the other would-be couples in the Center. She'll come over to Feuilly's room next to the storage after one of her classes and ask him if he wants to go out to dinner with her. She's pretty sure he'll say yes.

At least, if it goes badly, or they break up, she knows that Feuilly won't break into her house and piss on her stuff .

 

 

It's harder than she thought. It's been a while - raising two teenagers will do that to your social life, thank god Azelma is a legal adult now, even if she does still live with them - and Eponine finds herself putting things off. The conversation with Cosette is on Monday. Tuesdays are long days at work, and she doesn't have any spare time. Wednesday Gav gets into a fight and she has to go to the school to get him. Thursday... Éponine doesn't have a very good excuse for Thursday, but she does tell herself, very firmly, that tomorrow is the day.

Fridays are half days, and not very busy, but THIS Friday Gav gets his period (always a rough day, and she needs to talk with him about hormones and check her budget) and by the time Éponine gets to work she's late. It's her self-defense class  - adults, not children, so it's not SO bad, but she's still running when she enters the building, fails to notice the 'Caution: Wet Floor' sign, slips, snatches at empty air...

...and is saved from a bruised tailbone by Feuilly.

He's caught her with a hand on her back, so she's leaning backwards and looking up into his face. It's very cliché, probably, but that's not what's running through Éponine's head. It's 'oh wow that was lucky' and 'oh no I'm late' and 'his hand is really warm' and 'l like his nose' and she means to say "Thank you" but instead it comes out as "Go out with me."

There's a wolf whistle from behind her - oh shit, she hadn’t seen the people, how embarrassing - and a smattering of claps and what sounds like an off color joke. Feuilly's mouth curves into that grin she likes so much, but not as shy. Something about it makes Éponine go a little weak at the knees.

"Sorry, I'm late," she blurts, and runs away, face crimson.

 

 

The class goes horribly. It runs late, because Éponine started it late, and then she dashes through the showers (all she's doing today is hurry, hurry, hurry) because she doesn't want to smell, and then she runs to Feuilly's workshop to find him locking up.

"Hey," Éponine says, feeling inane.

"Hey," Feuilly says, smiling at her. "Did you need something?"

Eponine shakes her head. "No."  And then, "Yes. About earlier - I didn't mean to - that is, I did, but - oh, god." She covers her face with her hands. "I feel like a teenager."

"It's okay, I'm listening," Feuilly says. He tucks the keys into his bag. He's blushing through his freckles, and Éponine feels a lot better.

"I wasn't going to ask you out like that. I had a plan." She plans. She's responsible. "So, even though that scene in the morning was really embarrassing, and I'm pretty sure there's a clip from the security cameras circulating between our friends right now... Would you go on a date with me?"

"Yes," Feuilly says, brown eyes warm and oh, no, she's going to be so stupid for him, "I will go out with you."

Éponine grins at him, and Feuilly’s grin widens. They stand there smiling at each other like morons until Feuilly says, "I actually liked this morning."

Éponine raises an eyebrow. "You're into public humiliation, then?"

"Nope," Feuilly says. He offers her his arm, a little old fashioned, very adorable, and she links her arm with his. They head towards the lobby. "I just...you know, I've been meaning to ask you out for weeks?"

"You have?" Éponine asks.

"I could never muster the courage. You're always prepared for everything and you have something to say to everyone, and I'm, well, I'm a repairman-"

"I don't care that you're a repairman," Éponine interrupts, secretly pleased. She shows a lot more than she used to, she's better about letting people in, but it's good to know that she's in control. "Four years ago, I was raising two teenagers on a barista's wage and living in R's spare room. I'm not a snob."

Feuilly looks a bit taken aback by her confession, but he rallies. "I know you're not a snob. It's just easier to take a risk when you've seen someone be vulnerable. If you'd asked me out like a normal person - " Éponine elbows him. “I'd feel a lot more awkward right now.”

Éponine always feels vulnerable, but Feuilly’s words are a reminder. Feuilly never saw her as a high-schooler with bad makeup, smelling of cigarettes, or as a dropout with a bad decision boyfriend, back when her only friend was R, more fucked up than she was. It's kind of a relief, a fresh start.

"Well," Éponine says, drawing out the word, wellllll. "I'll remember that."

"So you don't have to make the first move next time?" Feuilly asks.

"Have dinner with me Wednesday?" Éponine fires back.

"I have night classes. Thursday?"

"I promised Azelma I'd go to her swim competition." Eponine considers asking him along, but it's probably too early for him to meet 'Zelma. Besides, her sister would kill her if she was wearing a swimsuit the first time she met Feuilly.

"Friday?" Feuilly offers.

"Friday," Éponineagrees.

 

 

The way he kisses her is totally worth the video that Courfeyrac puts up on the Center's group chat, and she doesn't even make Courfeyrac cry.

 

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> Title from "You Can't Always Get What You Want" by the Rolling Stones.  
> Time for shoving headcanons at you, in the tradition of the Les Mis fandom. Eponine and the kids are Yemen. Feuilly is Polish. Cosette is mixed race Chinese and white. (Come hit me up for the story behind Eponine's racial headcanon. It includes me being gay and dating tips!)  
> Also, Gavroche is trans, and Maman and Papa Thénardier are horrible.


End file.
